RTX teams with Shield AI to bring autonomy capabilities to weapons, sensors

An MTS-B sensor system on an MQ-9 Reaper unmanned aerial vehicle. RTX plans to upgrade the MTS with Shield AI's ViDAR software to improve performance against maritime and aerial swarm threats. (Raytheon Space and Airborne Systems)

RTX and Shield AI are working together to bring Shield AI capabilities to certain RTX defence products, such as loitering munitions and sensors, according to a joint statement on 1 July. The partnership is intended to supply “enhanced, autonomous capabilities to US and allied defence forces”, the statement said.

Through the collaboration, RTX will integrate Shield AI's Hivemind autonomy stack to “field the first operational weapon powered by Networked Collaborative Autonomy (NCA) – a breakthrough technology that fuses real-time co-ordination, resilience, and combat-proven firepower”, according to the statement, which noted that this project will be fully funded by the two partners. It is not clear whether this would be a new platform or an existing RTX system upgraded with Shield AI capabilities.

“RTX's defence systems paired with Hivemind, which delivers mission autonomy for intelligent, collaborative operations, create powerful new capabilities for the warfighter,” Gary Steele, CEO of Shield AI, said in the statement, adding that “this collaboration reflects how the defence ecosystem is evolving – bringing the best of autonomy and hardware to bear on national security challenges”.

Shield AI will also integrate its Visual Detection and Ranging (ViDAR) software with RTX's Multi-Spectral Targeting System (MTS) to “enable automated [artificial intelligence]-based sensor autonomy against maritime and airborne swarm targets, with a focus on rapid productisation for current MTS customers”, the statement said.